Seoul, March 7 || The South Korean government on Friday said it will conditionally scrap a contested plan to increase medical school admissions next year to resolve the ongoing health care crisis.
Education Minister Lee Ju-ho announced the conditional decision to set the medical school enrollment quota for 2026 at 3,058, which is equivalent to the figure before the government put forward a plan to increase admissions by 2,000 a year ago, news agency reported.
Ju-ho said the implementation of the revised quota will be contingent on the condition that all medical students return to classrooms by the end of this month. Medical students nationwide have been boycotting classes and taking a leave of absence in protest of the government's expansion of the medical school quota.
Earlier last month, the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Graduate School of Medicine, a consultative body of medical school deans nationwide, proposed that they will persuade medical students to return to classrooms if next year's medical school enrollment quota is revised back to 3,058.
The presidents of 40 universities with medical colleges across the country also met online on Wednesday and submitted the same recommendation to the government.